EC Designs

I am Arthur Futernik, a sophomore at Maryland Institute College of Art. During the summer of 2016 I interned for an industry design company called EC Designs. I was told about EC Designs through a family friend that mentioned my name to lead designer, Eric Cera. After doing a bit of research I noticed Eric worked for many reputable clients such as MTV, Time Inc, and ABC, among others. Eric was impressed by my website and I reached out to him to get further details.

In the past I have always wanted to work in the entertainment industry. Interning for EC Designs would give me a great head-start and insight to this field of work. When the summer started, Eric and I met in person and went over what I intended to do with the company. After a long conversation about my past experience, future goals, and the work load I would be doing I was accepted as an intern!

This internship provided an in-depth look into the field of industry design, an occupation that is very in line with my future aspirations. During the three months of my internship, we mainly built custom props, sets, and environments for big name corporations, and we also commuted to Manhattan to install them. We set up many different projects for clients such as Lancome, Michele Watches, and Time Inc., out of many others. Though the builds were very physically demanding, it helped me become familiar with various power tools and heavy machinery that we had to use in the workshop. My favorite days were when I had to commute to the city by myself. It was always a little nerve wracking getting there and back on time which made it a bit fun, as well as meeting new people who are in the entertainment industry. Sometimes I would strike up a conversation with someone and ask them how they like working in this field, and they would always have a pleasant answer, which is very reassuring. This internship was a good way for me to start learning and figuring out what I want to do as a career in the future.

I am happy I interned with EC Designs this early into college because it really helped me decide on what I want to pursue in the future as well as give me a few new additions to my portfolio.

TESSO Technologies

I interned the summer of 2016 for TESSO Technologies; a large wireless distribution company located about 20 minutes outside Baltimore in Timonium, Maryland. TESSCO has another location in Nevada and is traded on the NASDAQ. Their partners include Lifeproof, Otterbox, Speck, Samsung, LG, you name it. After coming across a listing online for a design intern, I applied on a whim. The position was paid, I had not secured a credited position yet, and having just signed a lease to the most beautiful walk-up, I was in no position to turn down being paid. I received a phone call immediately the following morning, and after an interview and a portfolio review I was hired.

I worked under Paul Garland in the marketing department. Paul’s official position was campaign production and execution (a generic tag applied to all the creatives in the marketing department), but he was essentially the creative head for the department, as all the other creatives answered to him.

I worked on many projects, and I did a lot of work branding TESSCO’s annual trade show. They had originally outsourced the work to a firm, but they were unhappy with the final product so all the department creatives took a pass at it, and my pitch was chosen. However, what I’m most proud of are the email templates and style guides I created. It was a project outside my comfort zone, and by far the best portfolio piece I gained through my internship. It was exciting to see my design come to life as it was coded by another designer, and to think it is being seen by TESSCO’s 20,000-some quarterly customers. Not to mention it is a lasting mark I made on the company.

The biggest take-away is to just take a chance. I was reluctant to accept the position, but I gained a lot and am grateful for the opportunity. I gained several very nice portfolio pieces, gained real experience to add to my resume, and built skills I did not previously have. Plus I got paid, so you know, that was cool, too.

In the future I think I would prefer to work in a design firm. TESSCO was a crash course in my Blair-Waldorf-white-collar-dreams and I realized it wasn’t for me, but that’s also part of the gain of an internship — testing out a career path. Not to mention now that I’ve gone through this process, once I’m better prepared to do it again I’ll know what I want, what to look for, and how to find it.

Anti/Anti Studio

My name is Nora Mestrich, and I am a senior graphic design major. In the summer of 2016, I interned at Anti/Anti Studio in New York City. This past spring semester I became much more interested in branding and decided I wanted to focus my internship hunt at small branding studios in New York. I searched extensively for small studios to apply to, and worked with my department head, Brockett Horne, to find connections I may have at the studios I was applying to. From there, I sent cold emails and waited to hear back. Anti/Anti got back to me about a week after I sent my initial email and told me they wanted to schedule an interview with me, and since I was already planning on being in New York during spring break, I scheduled my interview for that week. When I went in for my interview I met with the Creative Director Ros Knopov and walked him through my portfolio. I heard back a couple weeks later that I had officially received the internship and began planning my summer in New York!

Anti/Anti is a full branding agency working with a range of clients from Morgan Stanley to BitTorrent. As an intern I got to work on variety of projects such as helping to develop a brand voice and mission for BitTorrent, sit in on meetings with clients, go to photo/video shoots, and just experience the day to day life of the studio. The most exciting thing I took part in this summer was developing a brand identity for the Flatiron Institute. The Flatiron Institute is a branch of the Simons Foundation that had tasked Anti/Anti with creating their logo and brand identity. In the beginning of the summer, I worked on the logo, and after the final logo was approved my fellow intern Bre Della Corna and I were put in charge of creating the entire brand identity. This included identifying CMYK, RGB, Hex, and Pantone colors, creating sizing standards for the logo both in print and on the web, deciding on typefaces and creating standard rules for typography, and creating mockups to show how the logo would live on various deliverables such as hats, mugs, business cards, etc.. We created a 104 page brand book, and while it was a very intense project full of confusing moments and late nights at the studio, it was extremely validating to be trusted with such a large project, and I learned a lot along the way.

After completing my internship this summer I feel exceptionally confident going into my senior year. I can tell my skills have been fine tuned and that I am a stronger designer and professional. I feel like I have figured out the path I want to continue down after I graduate and I’ve made made strong connections along the way, which definitely can help me find a job in the future. 

Jordan Baumgarten, Artist

My name is Ian Kline and I am a junior Photography major. During the summer of 2016, I was an assistant to Jordan Baumgarten, a photographer who has his MFA from RISD and is currently based in Philadelphia, PA. I first saw Jordan’s work when he had an interview on Vice Magazine’s website that followed up on his first book Briar Patch in 2013.

At the 2016 Philadelphia Photo Art Book Fair, a bunch of us went out for dinner after the first night and Jordan was in the group with us. He mentioned that he wanted to find an intern for the summer to help him out in the studio and in the field. I told him I was more than interested and willing, but he said I might be too qualified and that one of his students at University of the Arts may gain more out of the internship, but he said he would let me know. He texted me about a month later saying that if I wanted to do the internship I’d be more than welcome, so I excitedly said yes. 

Unlike some internships that may be one sided with the work you do, Jordan wanted to make the work closer to equal, so I would help him with whatever we needed to get done, then we would turn the tables and talk about my work, talk about work in general, and nerd out on photo books from his library to help inform work. During the time that we would be working, there were three main things we would do: work on the sequencing/production/color correction of his forthcoming book Slow Blink Open Mouth, work on organizing and looking at work for a new in-progress project (which meant scanning film and making work prints to hang up to get the ideas flowing), and going out into the field to make photographs either for commissions or for personal work.

This experience of working alongside a working artist in the field I see myself going towards (photographer and educator) was incredibly informative. I saw how Jordan managed his work alongside his own life, and that’s important, to have a life and do things alongside just making work and being cooped up in the studio. I saw how he held himself while out making photographs, which is hard to explain, but was very valuable. I also got great feedback and insight on my own work. I am psyched that I was able to help Jordan out this summer, and what I learned by working alongside him is something that will continue to influence my practice here on out.

Salem Works

My name is Sandra Liu, and I am a junior Painting major. During the summer of 2017, I was an intern artist at Salem Art Works, an art center and sculpture park located in upstate New York. I found this opportunity online through the MicaNetwork, and I was interested in it because it provided an opportunity to work amongst professional artists and explore new mediums. I wanted to push myself as a painter beyond school and desired a venue to talk to practicing artists about how they make work and sustain themselves. Furthermore, since this program was a work study, I would have food and board covered and a small artist’s stipend. I applied to Salem Art Works online through their Submittable form and turned in my resume, letter of intent, and ten work samples. I was notified through email two months later that I was chosen as one of the new

interns.

My direct supervisor was Anika Cartterfield, the intern coordinator at Salem Art Works. They helped integrate all the new interns to SAW and distributed the tasks that needed to be done each week. For the most part, my responsibility at SAW was to maintain their various facilities: wood shop, metal shop, glass shop, foundry, etc. and help improve their living spaces and accommodations for new artists coming in. Furthermore, the interns helped coordinate and set up many of the fundraisers and events that were happening at SAW. This included cleaning and setting up the spaces, documenting and cataloging artworks, curating shows, and working as advocates of SAW in public relations. Occasionally, we even got to install new outdoor sculptures and clean up and replace old ones. 

I am most proud of my open-mindedness and willingness to learn in a communal art environment. Making studio work at SAW was not always easy because of how much work I did weekly and how many engagements went on in a day. I worked hard in balancing new relationships, making works, and exploring the environment and tried not to sequester myself to my studio but engage the other artists and facilities. I tried out working in the glass shop and threw some ceramics in a wood fire. My biggest takeaway from this experience is how different working as an artist is in a society than at school. I learned how to manage new professional and personal relationships and how to know when to focus on my own work and when to take a break. I learned that being an artist is a lot more than just making work. I gained new skills in managing my work and personal life and in challenging new directions that my work can take. This experience has clarified my career goals in helping me understand how to balance making work with real life commitments and how to network with galleries, curators, and fellow artists.

Dasan Education

 My name is Syehyun Lee (Sean) and
I am a rising junior Film and Video major in Maryland Institute College of Art. During the summer of 2016, I was a Video and Marketing department intern for Dasan Education, a company based in Seoul (Gangnam), Republic of Korea (South Korea). When I was a high school student,
I went to Dasan Education Institute to
study for the SAT and TOEFL for the American University, so I had always wanted to work at Dasan company when I get old enough to work, and summer 2016 was the time!

What Dasan company does in South Korea is launch decent SAT, ACT and TOEFL Academy (Institute) sites in large cities in Korea. They also have two international middle and high schools in Seoul, South Korea. I can say that all the huge companies have video departments for recording something. In Dasan Education Company, they need to record all the lessons of SAT, ACT, TOFEL, and AP subjects for merchandizing; they sell to students who really want to study outside of Korea but do not know what to do. 

So, what I did in Dasan was to record all the lessons and organize their files. Also, I saved all the files in USB for their merchandizing. In Dasan Education company, as I have written above, it was quite simple work. I went to the office Monday through Friday at 7:55am and got ready for the recording of lessons in the academy. I recorded SAT lessons on every Monday and Wednesday, ACT lessons on every Tuesday and Thursday, and on Friday, I recorded TOEFL lessons and also organized all of the week’s recorded files. Most important was my duty on every last Friday of the month: I needed to re-organize all of the recorded files and save them to USB for the final product sold to students.

My Dasan Education intern experience included a lot of helpful learning. I learned many things in Dasan because there were many employees in the company who really wanted to help me learn about the real world. In particular, my direct supervisor, Manager Derek Kim, and my Assistant Manager, Jin Heo, gave me a lot of tips about surviving in the real world and at a company. This internship was a great way for me to start figuring out what I really want to do in my field, even if it was just a simple role in the Dasan Education Company. I also left with many new additions to my own resume.

I am happy that I planned this internship at the start of my junior year, before I became fully immersed in my Film and Video major studies. It really helped me to more clearly define my goals and focus for my remaining junior and senior years at MICA.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

My name is Emma Rubini, and I am going into my senior year as an Illustration major. In summer 2016, I interned in the costume department at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC). The world of theatre is one that has interested me since I was a child, but I had gotten out of it since starting college, and it was something I really missed. After becoming interested in costumes as a hobby, I took the costume design class here at MICA in fall of 2014, and it was from the professor of that class that I heard about CSC. I emailed the costume director, Kristina Lambdin. She got back to me quickly, and after a short back-and-forth, she accepted my internship request. She is also the one who became my direct supervisor. She is in charge of designing costumes for new shows (sometimes with a co-designer) as well as maintaining the costume shop and creating new costumes.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is a theatre company here in Baltimore, and I was drawn to them because of their dedication to the education of the community, and their creative spirit.  While working there, I acted as Kristina’s assistant, sometimes working in conjunction with other hired seamstresses. 

During the time I worked, the company put on the play The Three Musketeers, and I helped with modifying existing costumes as well as cleaning and repairing costumes that were damaged during the show. I assisted with organizing and repairing the costumes and returning them to their correct places in the stock. We followed a similar process for the next show, Anne of a Thousand Days.

I am very happy with my time at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. I think what I am most proud of is the fact that my work will be seen by so many people. Even though my contributions weren’t large or grandiose, even the small feeling of pride I get thinking about that tells me that I am on the right path. I am very interested in the design and production of costumes and fashion, particularly in the world of theatre, and I think the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has been the perfect place to start.